Night had fallen.
Neon slowly swallowed the city.
Layer after layer of towers and high-rises lit up with scattered evening lights, while the streets of Japantown in Westbrook were packed with people. The glowing holographic signs above the storefronts flashed endlessly.
This waterfront district along the inner-city river bend was soaked in the soft pink colors of cherry blossoms.
A long modified SUV and a Delamain pulled up one after the other outside an apartment building.
Maine and the others stepped out of the SUV.
Kai got out of the Delamain.
He looked up at the seaside apartment building, only seven or eight stories tall, then turned to Lucy and asked,
"This where you live?"
Lucy kept walking in front without even looking back.
"It's not some executive villa district like the ones your corp people live in."
"But if you want a place that's private, shielded from electronic surveillance, free of interruptions, and somewhere no corp or gang is going to casually walk in, this is it."
"If you think you've got somewhere better, we can still go there."
Dorio added from the side,
"Lucy is our team's netrunner. Her security is always airtight. If we're talking about this deal, her place is the best option."
Kai suddenly felt their prejudice against him really did run deep.
Then again, it made sense.
Wearing the skin of a corpo rat was bound to make people hate him.
He did not particularly mind.
Compared to the days when he and Johnny used to curse out every last member of the Arasaka family on a daily basis, this was already pretty friendly.
He said nothing else and followed Lucy into the apartment building, climbing the stairs behind her.
The stairwell was washed in a dark blue-green hue.
The old ceiling bulbs flickered faintly every time they gave off light.
Only after they reached the top floor and came to an electronic security door on the left side of the corridor did Lucy step forward and open it.
Kai followed them inside.
The apartment was not large.
It had a standard layout, not that different from the one Gloria rented.
The living room connected to a bathroom and toilet, with a single attached bedroom.
A basic sofa set and glass coffee table filled out the main room.
In the bathroom, a curtain covered half the tub, but even from outside, he could see it was still full of half-melted ice.
The glass coffee table in the living room was almost empty except for a lone ashtray.
The only really valuable-looking equipment in the place was the netrunner chair and the computer desk.
The most eye-catching part of the apartment was the floor-to-ceiling panoramic window in the living room.
Through it, the coastal nightscape of Night City stretched out in full view.
Lucy pressed a hand lightly to her temple. Yellow rings of code flickered in her eyes. A few seconds later, she said,
"It's done. I've shut down every active sensor, all camera recording systems, and isolated the whole apartment from the Net and outside sound. You can start talking."
After saying that, she moved to the giant window, sat against it, lit herself a cigarette, and started smoking in silence.
It looked like she was watching the wide river bend that cut through the city, the massive steel bridge stretched across it, and farther beyond that, the offshore launch complex rising out of the dark sea.
Maine had no interest in more games.
Once he sat down, he got straight to the point.
"What exactly do you want from us?"
Kai sat on the sofa opposite them, near the panoramic window, with the coffee table between them.
Then he said calmly,
"I want to work with you to screw over someone from Arasaka."
"More precisely, someone inside Arasaka who's trying to bury me."
The moment the words left his mouth, everyone visibly froze.
Even Lucy's cigarette stopped halfway to her lips, slowly burning down between her fingers.
Maine had never expected that a deal with an Arasaka man would end up targeting Arasaka itself.
And if someone at Kai's level had to make a move, then the person he wanted to bring down was definitely no small fry.
Maine's tone turned mocking.
"Guess corp dogs really do love tearing each other apart."
Kai remained completely unfazed.
"If something bares its fangs at me, then even if it's just another dog, I'll bite back. Isn't that how it works?"
"I've barely been back any time at all, and people inside the company are already trying to set me up."
"And Gloria's crash had their fingerprints all over it."
"Things have already gone this far. Either I crush them inside Arasaka, or they crush me."
From the corner of the window, Lucy could not help glancing sideways at Kai.
His young, clean-cut face showed none of the marks of someone who had been ground through brutal corporate warfare, yet the things he said always carried a strange weight.
Sometimes he felt like a lone wolf.
Sometimes like a lamb.
He was impossible to pin down.
Dorio, however, saw a deeper layer than Maine.
She asked,
"If we get involved in Arasaka internal conflict and it touches high-level corporate secrets, aren't you afraid we'll sell that information?"
"You should know a lot of people would pay to know what's happening inside Arasaka."
Kai looked utterly unconcerned.
"Then it sounds like you still don't really understand what Counterintel does."
"If information about this leaks, everyone who knows about it gets marked by Arasaka as an enemy who stole corporate intelligence."
"And I represent Counterintel."
"My job would simply be to eliminate the enemy."
The instant Maine heard that, his temper flared.
He shot to his feet and glared at Kai.
"So what you're saying is, if anything goes wrong, you'll dump every bit of it on us?"
Kai answered without hesitation.
"Did you think people from the corp were going to protect you like some saintly mother figure, take all the blame for you, and let you walk into this deal feeling safe?"
"Working with a corporation isn't just about sincerity."
Those words hit hard.
Dorio immediately shoved Maine back down before he could explode, then addressed Kai directly.
"I think you're telling the truth."
"At least that's better than the kind of fixer who lies through their teeth."
Kai smiled faintly, almost approvingly.
"Maybe you're better suited to lead this crew than Maine is."
"Now that we have the beginnings of an understanding, it's time to talk specifics."
Only because Dorio had forced him to hold it in did Maine sit there and keep listening.
Kai turned toward Lucy.
"You can pass them the chip now."
"If we're cooperating, they should know the real situation."
Lucy clearly disliked being directed by an outsider, especially a corporate one.
She hesitated, then finally pulled out the chip and tossed it to Maine.
Once Maine and the others slotted it into the ports behind their ears, they read through part of Kai's conversation with Jenkins and the origins of the military-grade Sandevistan.
That was when they finally understood why Kai had said anyone who installed it was guaranteed to die.
This powerful military-grade implant was an experimental Militech product.
It had been specifically designed for cyberware users with military-grade physical conditioning, then field-tested by observing the subject's actual combat use and recording detailed human trial data.
Maine had known all along that the implant he bought came from a cyberpsycho's corpse.
But even he had not thought this far.
If he had just installed it, he would have become Militech's next test subject without even realizing it.
And even after death, his body would probably be sent to a lab for dissection and study.
It felt like suddenly turning around and seeing, hidden in the dark, a blood-red snake rearing up with its fangs bared right in front of his face.
A chill ran through Maine's entire body.
(End of Chapter)
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